Court review :
Chaitanya Tanhane's impressive debut film starts with a 65 year old teacher cum street performer getting arrested for allegedly abetting suicide of a sewage worker through his rousing song. The film is completely linear in approach, at times even mundane to an effect but subtly drives home the sordid point of the increasing rot in our judicial system. Therein lays its genius.
Court is not an entertaining or a massy kinda film so if you like your drama with high voltage "I object Milord" or "Tareek pe tareek" arguments a la hindi cinema, please be forewarned. Tamhane does not play to the gallery in any manner, in fact, keeping the proceedings as realistic as possible. The two lawyers in this case are socially opposites; one is a well to do Gujarati bachelor who lets his hair down once in a while with his friends at pubs while the other is a lady from a lower middle class background toiling through train travels and balancing her work while fulfilling her family duties. The contrast is subtle yet registers strongly. What also stands out is that no particular character is portrayed negative or grey shaded. In one scene, the judge objects to a lady wearing a sleeveless top as violating the court rules and is then subsequently shown relaxing at a beach resort with his family members where the ladies are fully clothed inside a swimming pool.
Certain scenes are brilliantly shot like the scene where the sewage workers wife is cross examined in court and the lawyer then drops her home. It's simplistic yet very effectively shot. Another of my favorite scene is when the accused is re-arrested in a printing press; shot without a single dialogue. Reference is also made to cases where an accused of a particular religion was re-arrested again and again in seemingly bizarre manner.
To sum up, Court may not entertain you wholly but it is undeniably a super effort in depicting realism. Extending a full 10 minutes beyond a point where you feel it actually ended, the movie is a fine debut and a national award worthy effort. Recommended to connoisseurs of realistic cinema!
Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni.
Chaitanya Tanhane's impressive debut film starts with a 65 year old teacher cum street performer getting arrested for allegedly abetting suicide of a sewage worker through his rousing song. The film is completely linear in approach, at times even mundane to an effect but subtly drives home the sordid point of the increasing rot in our judicial system. Therein lays its genius.
Court is not an entertaining or a massy kinda film so if you like your drama with high voltage "I object Milord" or "Tareek pe tareek" arguments a la hindi cinema, please be forewarned. Tamhane does not play to the gallery in any manner, in fact, keeping the proceedings as realistic as possible. The two lawyers in this case are socially opposites; one is a well to do Gujarati bachelor who lets his hair down once in a while with his friends at pubs while the other is a lady from a lower middle class background toiling through train travels and balancing her work while fulfilling her family duties. The contrast is subtle yet registers strongly. What also stands out is that no particular character is portrayed negative or grey shaded. In one scene, the judge objects to a lady wearing a sleeveless top as violating the court rules and is then subsequently shown relaxing at a beach resort with his family members where the ladies are fully clothed inside a swimming pool.
Certain scenes are brilliantly shot like the scene where the sewage workers wife is cross examined in court and the lawyer then drops her home. It's simplistic yet very effectively shot. Another of my favorite scene is when the accused is re-arrested in a printing press; shot without a single dialogue. Reference is also made to cases where an accused of a particular religion was re-arrested again and again in seemingly bizarre manner.
To sum up, Court may not entertain you wholly but it is undeniably a super effort in depicting realism. Extending a full 10 minutes beyond a point where you feel it actually ended, the movie is a fine debut and a national award worthy effort. Recommended to connoisseurs of realistic cinema!
Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni.